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Modal interpretations provide a general framework within which quantum mechanics can be considered as a theory that describes reality in terms of physical systems possessing definite properties. Modal interpretations are relatively new attempts to present quantum mechanics as a theory which, like other physical theories, describes an observer-independent reality. In this book, Pieter Vermaas details the results of this work. He provides both an accessible survey and a systematic reference work about how to understand quantum mechanics using a modal interpretation. The book will be of great value to undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in philosophy of science and physics departments with an interest in learning about modal interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In my view this work will turn out to be a milestone in the project, now already 30 years old, of modal interpretations." Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

Book Description

Standard quantum mechanics is not a theory that describes the outside world. Rather, it only predicts the probabilities with which measurements have outcomes. However, quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory of nature, and attempts have been made, therefore, to interpret the theory as a description of the world. This book is a survey of the so-called modal interpretations of quantum mechanics, proposed during the 1970s and 1980s, and more fully developed in the 1990s.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Quantum mechanics defies the imagination, we all know that. During the 1990ies a new and elegant interpretation was born (the `modal interpretation'). Philosopher-physicist P.E. Vermaas has helped to build it. In this book he investigates this interpretation very thoroughly --- the book presupposes knowledge of quantum mechanics, its relevant mathematics and a profound love for sub- and superscripts. The conclusions are however not optimistic. If some version of the modal interpretation is going to make sense of the quantum world we seem to inhabit, then it is going to be a quite complicated version.The basic idea is to investigate under what conditions one can ascribe properties to physical systems, ie mass to an electron, position to a proton, energy to a Helium molecule, without running into contradictions with quantum mechanics itself. The good news is that this turns out to be possible to a larger extent than has generally been accepted. But as said above, the bad news is that it is going to be complicated.Perhaps one would have expected from one of the builders of the modal interpretation a passionate defense of it --- who else is going to defend it? On the other hand, the honesty to tell bad news concerning what is partly your own intellectual offspring is laudable. Much labour has been spent in this high-level accomplishment, but little passion.No seriously interested party can afford to ignore this book.